Hello!
Thank you to all who joined us for our community meeting last week.
We’ll get better at recording meetings! Here are the resources from our February 2018 meeting:


  *   Data Studio https://datastudio.google.com
     *   Data Studio slides<https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1y5tYX9q5Xu0h-g73vU6gVW0q7JDZ2hzi0e2TXIt3YdQ/edit?usp=sharing>
     *   Video/audio of Data Studio presentation<https://its.uicapture.uiowa.edu/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=a4bfc444-ad63-42f2-bef3-7ad4905ab649> (may have issues with freezing, does not include demo capture)
     *   Sign up for Google Account with your uiowa.edu email<https://accounts.google.com/SignUpWithoutGmail?hl=en>
     *   Example reports: OSC Quarterly report<https://datastudio.google.com/open/1E2n5ga3rkrsw12-3wrfUC2GEi0e1tjmk>, WorkLife report<https://datastudio.google.com/open/1CIxhEa928dUaxo0kY5Xo3nlPrO_nlFp8>, location example<https://datastudio.google.com/open/1_N1COYsEYmjiY_drzeGXKyQzNcwcBJwF>
  *   Topics
     *   Radar: A handout, Radar Summary<https://drive.google.com/open?id=1c2zXd-HAP7aa5gBxoRNMyAhBBzsy9a_b>, was provided upon inquiring with the developers.
     *   Understanding users<https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/2992042?hl=en>/visits/sessions<https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/2731565?hl=en>: we discussed the differences between new and returning users and how Google handles sessions. Returning user status is determined by a cookie Google stores on your device. Google may track a user across devices, but it is not reliable. Sessions timeout at 30 minutes. Returning users can also change depending on the timeframe of your report.
     *   Utm_campaign best practices: Campaign URL Builder<https://ga-dev-tools.appspot.com/campaign-url-builder/>.
        *   Be sure to put the active URL, noting https:// and whether or not “www” is in active URL; some redirecting servers will strip the parameter information. Avoid using URL shorteners.
        *   While only URL and source are required by the form, Google Analytics’ best practice is to include medium and name, too.
        *   Source who you are, Medium how you are communicating, Name consistent across all source/medium.
        *   Keep parameters in lowercase with no spaces. Hyphens are ok. Keep your values short and readable.
        *   Do not use utm_ tracking parameters on internal (uiowa.edu) links. Using for internal links will drop how the traffic initially got to your site. This also starts a new session.
        *   May be seeking a working group to help establish best practices for campus. Let Dawn know if you are interested!
     *   University of Iowa Internet Archive<https://www.lib.uiowa.edu/web/archive/> (random resource mentioned at meeting)
     *   Google Search Console<https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/home?hl=en>
        *   SiteNow sites have Search Console accounts created at launch. Contact Dawn<mailto:[log in to unmask]> if you need to have permissions to your site’s account.
        *   Search Traffic > Search Analytics give you a deeper look at the queries used to get to your site.
           *   Queries: words typed in search; Clicks: times a user clicked on a link to your site for that query; Impressions: times your site appears in the results for that query; CTR: Click through rate (clicks/impressions); Position: average position in results for that query.
        *   Data is kept active for about 3 months.
        *   Data is often more aggregated than granular. Use this data for trends and movement in broad strokes.
        *   Context is key!
        *   Crawl > Crawl Errors is a good report to keep an eye on. 403 errors are especially good to check if you are publishing/unpublishing often. Add redirects where appropriate to fix.
        *   Search Appearance > HTML Improvements reports can give insight on ways to improve your meta data.
  *   Next meeting Monday, April 9, 10-11 AM, 2520D UCC


########################################################################

To unsubscribe from the WEB-ANALYTICS-COMMUNITY list, click the following link:
&*TICKET_URL(WEB-ANALYTICS-COMMUNITY,SIGNOFF);